ECB should not set policy based on profit concerns: de Guindos

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should not set policy based on consideration about its own profitability or the profits earned by banks, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said in a newspaper interview, weighing in on a disagreement between policymakers.

Some ECB governors are keen to increase unremunerated minimum reserve requirements for lenders in part to lower the losses the central bank is set to make on having to pay record high rates on excess liquidity.

"I understand that remuneration of reserves is important for some banks, but monetary policy shouldn’t be driven by the financial position of banks or the profits of the central banks," de Guindos told Belgian newspapers De Standaard and La Libre Belgique in an interview.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)